"I am not going to pretend that this makes any kind of sense to me, but I will note that nothing like this ever happens on Law & Order."

Usually, when something like that happens on L&O, the perpetrators are a couple of fundamentalist Christians and, instead of a "head shop athame" the murder weapon is something like a replica SS dagger, complete with the "Mein Ehre heisst Treue" inscription.

Nothing like this ever happens on Law & Order.Then to hell with that show, never watched it and now I know why.othing like this ever happens on Law & Order. Does that make this one of those "Unsolved Victim Unit-Thing" things?

"I first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love...Yes, a profound sense of fatigue, a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I-I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence. I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women, er, women sense my power, and they seek the life essence. I do not avoid women, Mandrake...but I do deny them my essence."

"This is a time of Wiccan holiday, being the solstice," said Schultz. "We're still investigating to determine if that had something to do with this particular homicide."

Translation:

"I see satanic people..."

Geesh, I know Wiccans are weird and all, but that whole "Wiccans are all evil devil worshipers who murder people (oh and they steal babies too)" meme is really getting old. Ostara was last saturday (march 20). All of my witchy friends were out in the woods dancing around nekkid (and probably screwing) None of them where killing anyone. There is very little killing in Wicca, there does seem to be a lot of nudity, but very little killing (like none) is sanctioned by the religon. Go pick on Islam, I know it's becoming over-played, but at least you can point to where their "holy" people are actually saying to go kill people.

"This is a time of Wiccan holiday, being the solstice," said Schultz. "We're still investigating to determine if that had something to do with this particular homicide."

Because a religion whose primary tenet is "harm none" was a motivating factor in a murder.

I'm gonna have to go with Stuart's theory here: the police chief sees "non-Judeo-Christian" and goes "I see satanic people." Because anyone who doesn't worship the Judeo-Christian-Muslim god must be a satanist.

There was a time when it might have, but that was very early in the series run. Like most series it degenerated over time, and after 2000, the writers and actors hurled themselves and the show over a liberal cliff.

farmist: actually Dec 22 is the winter solstice. Equinoxes are spring and fall.